Question: When staffing accounts or going after new business, I’ve often heard about “horses for courses” or the need to “match” the client with the right people. What does this mean?

Answer: The short answer is that if you know what kind of person your client or prospect is, then you can do a better job of knowing how to sell to him and who should do the selling.

More specifically, many consultants feel that you can classify clients (and most people) into four basic types. And if you understand what type of person you’re dealing with, you can significantly increase your chance of success (selling an ad, establishing a relationship, staffing an account).

So here is a summary of the four basic types. (See if you can see yourself in one of them).

The metaphor here is that everyone essentially is like an element of a print ad – headline, body copy, logo or illustration.

The first thing to understand is that clients/people are divided into those who are task-oriented or people-oriented. And they are also divided into whether they are askers or tellers.

So the grid ends up looking like this:

TASK

PEOPLE

Here are the descriptions of the profiles:

Headliners – People who are headliners tend to have these characteristics:

Business-like

Interested in results

Make snap decisions

Risk takers

Tend to ask first

Care about efficiency

Are well organized

Dress appropriately

Are leaders

Are entrepreneurs

Body Copy – Bodycopy people have these tendencies

Interested in process

Business-like demeanor

Very cautious

Tend to ask first

Occasional analysis-paralysis

Use “to-do” lists

Dress neatly, color-coordinated

Like facts, details, examples

Need and follow plans

Logos – Logos have these tendencies

Interested in relationship

Ask questions

People-oriented

Consensus builders

Cautious

Politically savvy

Friendly and open

Neat

Are leaders

Illustrations – Illustrations tend to be:

People-oriented

Interested in first, newest, most, best

Tend to act first

Want to inspire and be inspired

Impetuous

Somewhat disorganized

Pretty open with people

Like to motivate and be motivated

Somewhat flashy in dress

Enthusiastic

Poised and sociable

Now here are the two most important parts:

If you can classify the type of person you are dealing with, you can package, position and organize your presentation, conversation, meeting, etc., to be as effective as it can be by being more relevant to the receivers.

If you know what type of person you are, then you can know what to modify about yourself to be personally effective with whomever you are dealing.

One last note – research on this profiling suggests that Bodycopy people tend to marry Illustrations. And Headliners tend to marry Logos. Check it out with yourself and your mate. This may not be scientifically true, but anecdotally speaking, it’s true for this logo.